The Annual report of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority for
2025/6 has been published this week.
It is an interesting document. It has an upbeat tone and its presentation
suggests a real sense of pride in the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC). It was a busy year for CNC. One of the big changes being the absorption of
100 officers from the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) as part of the
arrangements for the policing (or at least the armed guarding) of certain non
nuclear energy related locations.
I can’t think of another example of one Non Home Department
Police Force (NHDPF) taking over the functions of another NHDPF, although the
take over of the Southampton Harbour Board Police by British Transport Police
in the 1970s may be another example.
It shows that it can be done and I am tempted to conclude
that it demonstrates the feasibility of CNC and MDP becoming one force.
The Energy Act 2023 amended the Energy Act 2004 to allow CNC
to police locations other than civil nuclear installations if the Secretary of
State gives her authority. This gives
CNC the most flexible of NHDPF jurisdictions and is reminiscent of the role of
the Central Industrial Security Force in India.
The report mentions the possible role of CNC in providing
armed policing on passenger ferries.
Ferries to France, Ireland and the Netherlands used to be policed by British
Transport Police (BTP) and it is surprising that the government didn’t ask that
force to prepare for the role. I suspect
that the fact that primary legislation would be required to allow BTP to
perform this function may have been the deciding factor.
There is a brief mention in the report of plans for the future
of Small Modular Reactors (SMR). At
this stage there appears to be nothing in the public domain about how SMRs will
be secured and ‘policed’
Unlike other force annual reports this one has virtually
nothing to say about crime. CNC is not
an investigative police force.
Ultimately this leads to the question why is it a police force at all
and not just an armed security force? That debate is long running and the issues
extend beyond the policing of the energy sector into questions about how the
national NHDPs will interact with the proposed new super-sized forces in
England. This is a theme that I will
pick up again in future.
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